Dickson still on winning form

As Portugal Match Cup goes into the semi-final rounds

Chris Dickson is making the Portugal Match Cup, Stage 1 of the 2005-’06 World Match Racing Tour, his personal playground. The New Zealand skipper of the BMW Oracle Racing Team, the Challenger of Record for America’s Cup 2007, moved to match point in his semifinal match against Peter Gilmour, the Australian skipper of PST, the reigning Tour champion.

The other semifinal match at the $100,000 regatta, between Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Victory Challenge, and Jest Gram-Hansen (DEN), Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia, is tied 1-1.

The crews enjoyed another day of stunning weather on the Bay of Cascais, with 10 to 15 knots of gusty northerly wind. The 3rd annual event awards $30,000 to first place. Besides the start of the semifinals, racing in the Quarterfinal Round and for places 5th through 8th was completed.

The quarterfinals were completed first. Holmberg’s Victory Challenge team raced Chris Law’s (GBR) The Outlaws in the last match of the round. Law received a penalty at the pre-start of the first flight, giving Holmberg an early lead that he held until the end. In Flight 2 Holmberg crossed the start line at the pin end with a good advantage and stormed his way to a 2-0 win and a place in the semis.

“We had him under a bit of pressure in the pre-starts and managed to get off to the side we wanted,” said Holmberg. “For the semis we will just try to get a good start and sail the same way we did against Chris Law. It’s going to be tougher in the semifinals for sure.”

Next, the fourth round was raced to determine 5th through 8th. Mathieu Richard (FRA), Saba Sailing Team, beat Staffan Lindberg (FIN), Alandia Sailing Team, in match one and Law beat Thierry Peponnet (FRA), Areva Challenge, in match two. Richard beat Law to win 5th place and Peponnet beat Lindberg for 7th place.

The semifinal match between Dickson and Gilmour figured to provide fireworks. Dickson had won seven of eight races entering the match, while Gilmour is fresh off victory last weekend at the Locman Cup – Elba Island.

Before the match Gilmour spoke of his problem versus Dickson in the Group A round robin. “We didn’t get to race Dickson in the first round because of the incident we had with the anchor and the committee boat, getting caught up on that, “Gilmour said. The incident left Gilmour trying to free himself from the committee boat while Dickson sailed away.

The match was sailed in a shifty wind, and Dickson quickly ran his record to nine wins in 10 races to move within one victory of the final.

In Flight 1 Dickson pushed hard during the pre-start and had the measure of Gilmour on the racecourse. By the time the pair reached the second windward mark Dickson was ahead by 20 seconds and breezed to the finish. Dickson clawed back from a bad start in the second race to take the 2-0 lead.

With shifty winds in the bay of Cascais making today’s racing exciting for spectators, yet difficult for skippers Dickson noted, “We won the first race on the right and came back from a bad start to win the second race on the left. There are gains and losses on both sides, but it’s about great teamwork to make the best of what you’ve got. We’re getting stronger with every race we do.”

Racing against Tour champion Gilmour, Dickson said, “We take every competitor seriously, I think nearly all of the majority of competitors we’ve raced this week are ranked higher than we are, we don’t take anyone lightly. We treat everyone the same. Tomorrow we’ll go out again and take one race at a time.”


Portugal Match Cup Semifinal Standings

Match 1 (First to 3 points wins)
(A1) Chris Dickson (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 2
(Crew: Zack Hurst, Jann Neergaard Kazuhiko Sofuku, Paul Westlake)
(A3) Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST, 0
(Crew: Rod Dawson, Christian Scherrer, Ed Smyth, Yasuhiro Yaji)
Match 2 (First to 3 points wins)
(B1) Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Victory Challenge 1
(Crew: Anders Dahlsjò, Lars Linger, Mal Parker, Stefan Rahm)
(B3) Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) Mascalzone Latino –Capitalia Team, 1
(Crew: Matteo Auguadro, Pierluigui Defelice, Rasmus Kostner, Chresten Plinius)

5th – 8th Places
5. Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team
(Crew: Greg Evrard, Olivier Herledant, Jean-Philippe Saliou, Yannick Simon)
6. Chris Law (GBR) The Outlaws
(Crew: Matt Cornwell, Charles Nankin, Piotr Przybylski, Henrik Walderyd)
7. Thierry Peponnet (FRA) Areva Challenge
(Crew: Tanguy Cariou, Benoit Briand, Hervé Cunningham, Thierry Douillard)
8. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team
(Crew; Nils Bjerkas, Niklas Carlzon, Carl-Johan Skoterstan, Daniel Wallberg)

The World Tour Partner and Official Car is BMW (Munich, Germany). World Tour sponsors include Sebago (Rockford, Mich.), the Official Footwear Supplier, Travel Places (West Sussex, England), the Official Travel Partner, and Wedgwood (Cheshire, England) the Official Trophy Supplier.